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Senators News & Notes

In case Sens fans worry that they have the only organisation that still embraces “good in the corners” guys despite contrary evidence, have no fear: the New York Rangers support Ludditism just as wholeheartedly as the Senators as Travis Yost demonstrates:

So goes the story of most rugged ‘defensive defencemen’ as they accumulate mileage on the body – they can’t move the puck or skate well, so they end up spending just about every shift trying to survive in the defensive zone. The Rangers have curiously kept Girardi playing big rotation minutes despite the red flags. Perhaps the Rangers don’t see those flags. Perhaps they feel that despite those issues, he’s still one of the best six options the team has. Perhaps they think he complements Ryan McDonagh’s game, and vice versa.

Much like South Park‘s underpants Gnomes, old school NHL GM’s and coaches operate under the following formula: acquire toughness + ? = profit. Their hardheaded resistance to see things any other way continues to boggle the mind.

Ryan Lambert wrote a piece that makes some good general points about the Sens attendance (alas, he worships at the cult of Pronman for reasons that remain inexplicable–particularly when we recall Ryan’s comments from a couple of years ago):

you can safely say there’s plenty of evidence the team wants to do little more than than cynically point to the barest of successes and have local media say, “What else do you want from them?” while pocketing a few extra playoff games’ worth of gate and concessions revenues.

This is absolutely the case–the local media does give that message and Melnyk absolutely needs that gate money (it’s hard to believe that Yost’s work is already four years ago).

A couple of signings to note: Chicago signed 22-year old European FA David Kampf (52-15-16-31) out of the Czech league; he didn’t make my FA list (or my 2014 draft list), but he was once a reasonably touted prospect (as per Central Scouting). Also from the Czech league but not making my list is 23-year old Matej Machovksy (2.25 .925), whom Detroit signed (he sailed through the 2011 draft).

Travis Yost’s seemingly dead Tumblr account has a piece from this summer that I thought I’d mentioned, but apparently did not. In it he discusses the NHL’s terrible broadcasts. Here are the key points for me:

It seems as though every 5-10 minute segment is chock full of cliche after cliche after cliche. I can’t think of the last time I genuinely learned something from a national broadcast … I, obviously, would prefer to be educated than entertained. But if you can give me the latter, no doubt I’m sticking around. The problem is that hasn’t ever been delivered either. … there are frustrating examples of really talented, really smart people being placed in secondary or tertiary roles … The other truly grating things on hockey broadcasts … is when completely junk analysis is passed off.

There’s no doubt that all of this is true. I actually think Travis is being too kind–hockey broadcasts are worse now because fans understand just how dumb much of the “analysis” is. I’ve watched more of this year’s playoffs than I have in years and it’s mindnumbing how poor most of the colour work and analysis is. Most of the opinions offered on broadcasts are carbon copies of what was said thirty years ago–hockey has moved on, but the talking heads have not. This really boils down to who does the hiring and manages talent on TV, because you could easily have a top-notch broadcast.

I don’t generally write about NHL awards, but I know many people get excited about them. I noted that the Sens own Craig Anderson is a top contender for the Masterton Trophy as Alexander P breaks down the odds of who will win what.